Don’t Diet. Eat Cupcakes.

I have a friend, Tona, whose favorite piece of advice is don’t worry, there’s always cupcakes. In honor of that idea, I decided to make my 27th birthday party cupcake themed.

I’m going to share some of the photos with you, but first I want to talk about how difficult it is to have a party centered around cupcakes when you’re only a year out of the deep, dark trenches of an eating disorder. It’s called EDNOS (eating disorder not otherwise specified), and for me it involved a lot of starvation and a definite avoidance of eating in public.

So it felt a little weird to be inviting people over with a table absolutely covered in cupcakes. Before intuitive eating, a birthday would include eating the whole cake within 24 hours. After intuitive eating, it took me almost a week to eat a dozen cupcakes — much different than a day. Even for someone like me, who’s deeply entrenched in Health at Every Size® and Fat Acceptance, hosting events that center around food is awkward, embarrassing , anxiety-inducing and, of course, triggering.

I got through it, and even enjoyed myself, without a second thought about guilt because of all of you — my support system. This is No Diet Week and to me, dieting is disordered eating, plain and simple.

It’s something that I not only identify with, but my heart goes out to every single person who’s ever struggled with an eating disorder, chronic dieting, a single diet, or even diet thinking.

Take a break from all that self hatred and take a little bit of time to love your body and enjoy a cupcake. And for now, enjoy some photos of cupcakes!